MOSSEL BAY NEWS - With regards to Mossel Bay Municipality and PetroSA’s plan to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding that will secure a base load for the town and its environs.
Herewith the mayor’s full speech:
Honourable Speaker, Alderlady Venolea Fortuin
Deputy Mayor, Alderman Cliffie Bayman
Members of the Mayoral Committee
Councillors
Residents
Partnerships for power
Last week members of the municipal executive, industry stakeholders, and I met with the Group CEO of the state-owned Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA) to explore opportunities for a partnership-driven solution to the energy crisis for Mossel Bay.
This followed previous meetings with PetroSA to discuss their intention to build a gas-fired power plant in Mossel Bay to help fight load-shedding.
The PetroSA acting Group CEO, Ms. Sandisiwe (Sandi) Ncemane, indicated that, pending the acquisition of the necessary infrastructure, such as turbines, their project could be ready in 18 to 24 months and could see an additional 180MW of generation capacity fed into the grid.
Ms. Ncemane said PetroSA has sufficient stock of tail gas to provide the base load needs of 82 MW needed for the Mossel Bay municipal area. A key advantage of the relationship with PetroSA as it pertains to energy sustainability is that it will decrease the Municipality’s burden on the national grid, which would leave scope to request leniency from Eskom.
I can announce today that Mossel Bay Municipality and PetroSA plan to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding that will secure a baseload for the town and its environs. This project may alleviate the town's immediate need for alternative energy while other initiatives, such as solar power plants and mini-grids, are being developed.
Mossel Bay Municipality is regarded as a reliable partner considering that the Municipality’s Eskom account is diligently paid in full.
Our Director of Infrastructure Services, Dick Naidoo reiterated that the Municipality is not in the business of power generation and therefore will focus on purchasing electricity from PetroSA as a gas off-taker.
This is yet another success on the journey toward energy sustainability for Mossel Bay.
Mossel Bay Municipality has over the years initiated several projects to address the sustainable supply of energy to the greater municipal area.
- Completed all the foundational energy studies such as the cost of supply study and the EMP study
- Demand side management with approximately 9 000 geyser control units fitted and implemented at residential homes
- Energy efficiency projects include pump stations & streetlighting fitted with energy-efficient alternative sources
- Approximately 1 900 solar water heaters have been installed at housing projects with funding from the DMRE.
- 30 kVA Solar installation with battery backup at the Infrastructure Services offices
- Completed solar streetlighting at ablutions in the informal settlements to improve community safety
- Installed solar power supply for traffic intersection along Louis Fourie Road / Langeberg Mall - other traffic intersections have UPS back-up.
One of the current short-term projects is the procurement of four emergency standby generators to maintain critical municipal infrastructure such as water reticulation that impacts community health.
This follows a donation by the Western Cape provincial government to ensure sustainable service delivery. The municipality is in the process of procuring three 650 kVA generators, and a 500 kVA generator for which we have received R4,347,826 from the Western Cape Provincial Government.
Also, in the pipeline is
- the installation of solar panels and batteries for storage at the Thusong Centre, valued at about R500,000 in the 2023/24 financial year. This will provide between 10-20 kW.
- The medium-term projects include the installation of mini-grids at several of the critical municipal infrastructure such as the water and wastewater plants, funded from the 2023/24 & 2024/25 capital programmes. These are Hybrid PV solar systems with battery storage.
- The tender process will commence immediately once the draft budget is approved in March 2023. Potential sites under consideration for these Hybrid PV solar systems with battery storage include Hartenbos Regional Wastewater Treatment Works (where approximately 14 hectares of municipal land is available for a solar farm), the Midbrak Waste Water Treatment Works ( with approximately 5 hectares) the Kleinbrak Water Treatment Works (where a one-hectare portion is available, with more land belonging to MBM, SANRAL, and Province), and the Great Brak Substation site on Erf 199, (approximately 1 hectare is available).
The estimated cost is R35-R40 million per installation. Element Consulting Engineers were appointed on 3 March 2023 and the business case will be submitted by the end of March 2023. - Tender document is scheduled to be completed by May 2023. In the long term, and to enable the municipality to obtain 30 MW of electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) a request for proposal not limited to solar energy is being prepared. The agreement will also assist with the reticulation of energy to other areas. A draft tender will likely be finalized by 31 March.
- One of the initiatives is a planned 30 MW Solar Farm at Mossdustria, where 22-hectare land is available and the required environmental impact studies have been dealt with. This proposed plant is given priority and a decision by the authorities is expected by February 2024.
To enable electricity transmission from this solar plant to the municipal grid, a 66 KV line is being installed from Mossdustria to the Ockert Bothma intake.
Mossel Bay also forms part of the MER initiative that is spearheaded by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s (DEDAT) Green Economy Chief Directorate and supported by the combined efforts of the Department of Local Government (DLG), Provincial Treasury (PT) the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning.
There are several other initiatives in the planning, such as the micro power generation from the Ernest Robertson Dam, and the revival of the Great Brak River hydropower station, to name but a few.
These initiatives and the ensuing energy sustainability will attract industry to Mossel Bay, making us attractive for economic development and ensuring job creation.
Meet-and-greets with new residents
As a first in Mossel Bay, the municipal manager and I will be meeting with predominantly new residents, starting with a Meet & Greet in Dana Bay this evening.
This will be the first of several such events, with the next planned for the Town Hall in June, to be followed by meetings in KwaNonqaba, D’Almeida, and, in September, in the Klein Brak and Great Brak River area. Other areas will follow in due course. These meetings aim to establish relations with people who recently settled in our beautiful town. Our statistics indicate that new residents predominantly settle in the Dana Bay and Brakke areas.
Mossel Bay Citizen App
Connecting with our long-time and first-time residents cannot be done through meet-and-greets alone. Technology and innovation enable us to do more for our residents, in a shorter time and at less cost to them, with greater efficiency.
The Mossel Bay Citizen App, under the guidance of Mr Joubert Coetzee and Councillor Nickey Le Roux, was recently presented to the Executive Mayoral Committee. The app is a major step towards growing good governance and ensuring service excellence.
Continuing our partnership with the faith-based community of Mossel Bay.
In November 2022, we hosted our first engagement with leaders of faith-based organizations in Mossel Bay.
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